It happens every twenty-two minutes. A complaint. A dispute. A cry for help from somewhere in the European Union.
The numbers are staggering really.
Appeals Centre Europe, that independent watchdog the EU’s Digital Services Act created, processed more than 24,0 comparing that to a ticking clock it’s relentless. By March 2026 they had handled over 30,00 total disputes since launching.
The platforms say they care about safety. They publish guidelines. They make videos about being “kind.”
Then they ignore their own rules.
In 70% of reviewed hate speech cases, ACE found platforms failed to remove content that clearly violated their policies.
Let’s break that down.
Out of 1,40 cases where ACE looked closely at decisions to keep up content marked as hate speech they overturned the platform almost seven out of ten times. The system is broken not occasionally but systematically.
Look at Instagram. After a UEFA Champions League match someone posted a comment comparing Black footballers to monkeys. Racism so blunt it shouldn’t even pass basic filters. Instagram left it up. ACE didn’t think much of that. They forced removal.
YouTube isn’t much better. Antisemitic videos popped up. Posted by people who actually have influence in Poland. Big names. The content violated every hate speech rule on the book. YouTube kept it live. ACE said otherwise.
And it’s not just race or religion. Roma communities? Targeted. Migrants? Attacked. LGBTQI+ people? Harassed. There was even an AI deepfake about the war in Ukraine. False. Misleading. It broke TikTok’s misinformation rules but TikTok let it sit there anyway.
So which one is the worst offender?
TikTok leads the pack of failure here. Or should we say leads the list of being overturned?
Here is how bad it got:
- TikTok: ACE overturned 83% of its keep-content decisions.
- Instagram: Followed closely at 74%.
- Facebook: 61% overturn rate.
- YouTube: 58% overturn rate.
These aren’t rounding errors. This is a pattern. As the report says these decisions reveal prominent and recurring issues with moderation. They don’t get it. Maybe they can’t. Maybe they just don’t care until forced.
Europeans are getting louder too. France sent in the most complaints. Belgium and Italy were right behind. They are tired.
But hate speech isn’t the only mistake platforms make.
There was this Czech photographer. Facebook banned him. Cited adult nudity. Sexual activity. It was a misunderstanding so absurd it feels funny except his career might be hanging in the balance. He was innocent. The algorithm or the reviewer missed the mark completely.
Thomas Hughes, who runs ACE, put it simply. He doesn’t sugarcoat it.
“Online hate has real-world consequences,” he said.
When platforms fail to act it’s not just a data point. It’s someone’s safety on the line. Two-thirds of hate speech rulings show platforms missing their own policies.
This goes to show that platforms don’t always get it right.
Sometimes they never do.
